Bats Library

I have been asked about the documentation I keep for my vehicles, my motos in particular, so here goes! The library consists of binders for receipts, owners manuals, and other documentation regarding each individual vehicle. The "library" represents more than 10 years accumulation of information for each of the vehicles I own and continues to grow all the time. There are more ideas in the pipe line for adding to the library going forward to ensure that the BATS can always have reference for our rare machines and keep the two strokes in the US on the road long into the future.

There are shop manuals for most of my bikes to help with keeping them on the road with regular maintenance and repairs. As you can see in the picture below I have a full range of workshop manuals including factory original with binding, printed copy in binder, laminated factory original (to keep the pages from being damaged during greasy hand engine work!), and even a haynes manual which is probably the best version I have seen so far. Why can't I get a Haynes manual for each of my bikes?! As you can see by the oil stains and creased pages, these all get their share of use.

The detailed "Exploded" AM6 diagram page has seen the most use over the years, with over a dozen AM6 motors split and rebuilt by the BATS! The lamination really comes in handy for this one since we often refer back to this "mid motor" as we put the AM6 humpty dumpties back together again.

The rarest publication in the library is my factory original "mito ev Racing '99" manual. This was included with the SP race kits that were available through special order from dealers in limited quantities for making the Mito 125 track capable. Rossi rode an SP kit equipped lucky strike Cagiva Mito to a 125 championship in Europe in the mid nineties! My Mito came with the SP kit and the original manual which required a lot of careful restoration to save from mold and water damage. I did scan a digital copy after restoration and you can see remnants of the mold damage on the cover sheet pictured below along with the mint condition Mito owners manual.

My Aprilia RS50 documentation is obviously the most well developed and complete portion of the library due largely to the fact that I have owned one or more of them since 2000 when I purchased one brand new from Scuderia West. Below you can see some of what is in my Aprilia RS50 documentation binder. A lot of receipts, all the manuals, warranty card (expired 1 year after purchase in 2000, but still cool to have), license plate, and documentation for aftermarket race parts installed on the bike.

So why the library you may be asking? Well if you ever tried to get info or find parts for these bikes in the US you would know how difficult it is to find. Theres also something to be said for having actual documentation in hand rather than just a digital copy. One day I may get around to scanning all the important stuff into digital, but since demand for this info has been low,  for now it will stay in the BATS library.